HR expert Keri Ohlrich, author of The Way of the HR Warrior, discusses common misconceptions surrounding the HR profession while emphasizing the impact that a skilled HR team can have on a business. Successful HR teams strike a balance between fighting for employees and meeting the needs of the business, all while prioritizing healthy company culture.
GUEST AT A GLANCE
Dr. Keri Ohlrich is a recognized expert in HR, with over 20 years of experience in the field. As the co-founder of Abbracci Group and co-author of The Way of the HR Warrior, she is committed to sharing her insights with others who share her passion for excellence in HR.
A QUICK GLIMPSE INTO OUR PODCAST
🔊 Podcast: Transform Your Workplace, sponsored by Xenium HR
🎙️ Host: Brandon Laws
📋 In his own words: “The Transform Your Workplace podcast is your go-to source for the latest workplace trends, big ideas, and time-tested methods straight from the mouths of industry experts and respected thought-leaders.”
SEEING THE VALUE
According to recent guest Keri Ohlrich, HR is a little bit misunderstood, even among those who work closely with HR professionals. She noted that HR is often seen as “a necessary evil for compliance purposes” and not as a valuable department that can accelerate business growth.
Keri emphasized that a skilled HR team can have a significant impact on staff and business development, but there’s still a significant gap between what business leaders perceive and what HR can actually do.
PODCAST EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
The Complexity of People
“I say, ‘Let’s talk in engineering terms.’ I say, ‘[…] This is what makes HR so hard to do. When you leave your machine on Friday, by the time you come back on Monday, unless there’s been some natural earthquake or tornado, your machine is the same. On Friday, however, when Jim leaves, he can come back on Monday a very different Jim. He could quit. He could just not show up. A lot of stuff happens to him over the weekend, and so that’s what makes them, as a ‘machine,’ very complex and difficult.”
Becoming Like Toby
“If you go into it from, ‘I just wanna help people, and I’m so happy to be around people,’ you’ll get jaded pretty quickly. […] It’s kind of like cops. Sometimes you only see people breaking rules. And in HR, sometimes if you only focus on those who are trying to maybe manipulate a system a little bit or you get a lot of disgruntled [people], you’re gonna get really jaded and unfortunately start to be Toby.”
Adding Value
“I think [successful] HR professionals see it as a strategic value to the business and understand that you’re gonna have to manage through some pretty tough issues. If you have the goal of ‘If I have a great employee base, the business does well, and if the business does well, we can hire more people’ — so if you see a long-term effect — I think those HR professionals are much more successful than ‘I like people’ because they will disappoint you.”
Finding the Balance
“While you can understand that you have to get to the business outcomes, you can fight for employees like nobody’s business, and you’re in this position to do so, and it’s a beautiful position. […] And so there’s this amazing stuff that you can do. You can fight for people’s raises, you can fight for pay equity. There are so many things that you can do to fight for employees while, at the same time, balancing the needs of the business. I think where HR goes so wrong and gets such a bad reputation is you’re a mouthpiece for the organization and the employees. Employees are incredibly brilliant, and they sniff out those HR people immediately. They’re like, ‘Don’t go to her. She’ll only do what the company says.’ And so in HR, you kind of have to be a little bit of a warrior and a badass to say, ‘You know what? That’s not right.’”
The HR Warrior
“It’s not for the faint of heart. […] It’s a badass profession, and so you do need to be a warrior, and you do need to charge forward. […] As a warrior, you need to have courage, you need to be resilient, you need to be accurate, you need to be goal-oriented, you need to have humility, and you need to be exemplary. So all of those things make this amazing business partner to your business, and it makes you an incredible employee advocate as well. You can be both.”
HR and Company Culture
“I think it’s so important for companies to understand their own culture and who they want to be. That’s what differentiates them. That’s what’s gonna get them the talent. That’s what’s gonna retain the talent. And so when HR can help you figure out who you are and articulate that, that’s gold. Because once you know the culture, once you know who you are, then everything cascades from there. Then, you can do performance management, then you can […] reward people because it’s all based on who you wanna be, and it’s your North star. And that is a gigantic plus for any company to be so clear with its culture and how it makes decisions. It makes things go faster. You hire the right talent. You keep the right talent.”
LEARN MORE
Connect with Keri Ohlrich on LinkedIn or check out her website to learn more about her HR Consulting Firm, Abbracci Group.